Education 4.0 in Developing Economies: A Systematic Literature Review of Implementation Barriers and Future Research Agenda

Emily Costan, Gamaliel Gonzales, Roselyn Gonzales, Lynne Enriquez, Felix Costan, Decem Suladay, Nadine May Atibing, Joerabell Lourdes Aro, Samantha Shane Evangelista, Fatima Maturan, Egberto Selerio and Lanndon Ocampo
Additional contact information
Emily Costan: College of Education at Danao Campus, Cebu Technological University, Danao 6004, Philippines
Gamaliel Gonzales: College of Education at Danao Campus, Cebu Technological University, Danao 6004, Philippines
Roselyn Gonzales: College of Education at Danao Campus, Cebu Technological University, Danao 6004, Philippines
Lynne Enriquez: College of Education at Danao Campus, Cebu Technological University, Danao 6004, Philippines
Felix Costan: College of Education at Danao Campus, Cebu Technological University, Danao 6004, Philippines
Decem Suladay: College of Education at Danao Campus, Cebu Technological University, Danao 6004, Philippines
Nadine May Atibing: Center for Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, Cebu Technological University, Cebu City 6000, Philippines
Joerabell Lourdes Aro: Center for Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, Cebu Technological University, Cebu City 6000, Philippines
Samantha Shane Evangelista: Center for Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, Cebu Technological University, Cebu City 6000, Philippines
Fatima Maturan: Center for Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, Cebu Technological University, Cebu City 6000, Philippines
Egberto Selerio: Center for Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, Cebu Technological University, Cebu City 6000, Philippines
Lanndon Ocampo: Center for Applied Mathematics and Operations Research, Cebu Technological University, Cebu City 6000, Philippines

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-23

Abstract: Education 4.0 (EDUC4) was driven by the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) to meet labor market requirements resulting from learning that is customized, flexible, accessible, and skills-based. As the concept of EDUC4 develops popularity in the education and innovation research domains, various challenges about its implementation have emerged, especially in developing economies. Thus, there is a need to investigate the existing barriers to EDUC4 implementation. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement, a systematic literature review of journal articles in the Scopus database was conducted. Of the 299 journal articles generated from the initial search on Scopus, 30 met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The content analysis yielded 12 barriers which include cybersecurity threat, costly, skills gap of human capital, apprehensive stakeholders, lack of training resources, lack of collaboration, knowledge gap for the customization of curriculum design, insufficient available technologies, health issues, time constraint for material preparation, complexity of learning platforms, and insufficient foundation of basic education. They were then associated with seven themes for better operationalization in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): (1) human resources, (2) infrastructure, (3) financial, (4) linkages, (5) educational management, (6) learners, and (7) health and environment. Finally, a theoretical predictive model was constructed to present the causal relationships in modeling the problems associated with implementing EDUC4. The insights generated from this work offer both theoretical and practical perspectives for stakeholders of HEIs in the implementation of EDUC4 in developing economies.

Keywords: Education 4.0; higher education institutions; PRISMA; systematic literature review; barriers; developing economies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12763/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/22/12763/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:22:p:12763-:d:682182

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().